Construction machines, such as hydraulic excavators, loaders and the like, normally have a counterweight attached rearwardly thereon to counterbalance the weight of the bucket or other work implement mounted forwardly thereon. One example of such counterweights is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,735, assigned to the assignee of this application. The counterweight disclosed therein is detachably mounted on a frame of the vehicle so that the counterweight can be removed from the vehicle when being transported from one job site to another. One problem encountered with such a prior art counterweight arrangement is that the shear pin and attendant bolts for securing the counterweight to the frame of the vehicle frequently become lost when detached from the vehicle.